Police Reveal 9‑Year-Old Girl Had Been Missing for a Year with ‘No Clear Explanation’

• The San­ta Bar­bara Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office said Melodee Buz­zard, 9, has not been seen for a year, and the child’s most recent pho­to was tak­en two years ago
• A school offi­cial report­ed Melodee’s pro­longed absence, prompt­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion on Oct. 14
• Deputies vis­it­ed the home and did not find the girl

Author­i­ties in Cal­i­for­nia are search­ing for a miss­ing “at-risk” young girl who hasn’t been seen in a year. 

In a Wednes­day, Oct. 15, news bul­letin, the San­ta Bar­bara Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office said it is seek­ing the public’s help in deter­min­ing the where­abouts of 9‑year-old Melodee Buz­zard. 

Accord­ing to author­i­ties, their inves­ti­ga­tion began on Tues­day, Oct. 14, after a school offi­cial report­ed Melodee’s pro­longed absence.

The sheriff’s office added that deputies attempt­ed to reach the child and her moth­er, Ash­lee Buz­zard, at their home on Mars Avenue. How­ev­er, Melodee and her mom were not at the res­i­dence and “no clear expla­na­tion was pro­vid­ed” for Melodee’s

When the deputies returned to the home on Wednes­day evening, they found Ash­lee present but not Melodee, accord­ing to ABC News, which report­ed that no oth­er per­son lived at the home. Sheriff’s office spokesper­son Raquel Zick did not share what Ash­lee said to inves­ti­ga­tors at the time.

The sher­if­f’s office said the last ver­i­fied con­tact with Melodee took place a year ago, and the most recent pho­to of the child was tak­en two years ago, when she was 7

“We do need the public’s help, because we have a giant, one-year seg­ment of this child’s life that we can’t account for,” Zick told ABC News. “We can’t say where she’s been for the past year, and we real­ly need some help with that.”

Accord­ing to the sheriff’s office, Melodee was home­schooled and had not checked in since Octo­ber 2024, ABC News report­ed. How­ev­er, a Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion spokesper­son told the out­let that there is no record of Melodee’s moth­er fil­ing a year­ly pri­vate school affi­davit, which is nec­es­sary for home­school­ing.

“This is not a homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tion — it is an at-risk miss­ing juve­nile case,” Zick told ABC News, adding, “I think it def­i­nite­ly does war­rant being called sus­pi­cious.”

Any­one who has seen Melodee or had con­tact with her in the last year is encour­aged to call sheriff’s detec­tives at (805) 681‑4150 or an anony­mous tip line at (805) 681‑4171, or sub­mit infor­ma­tion online at SBSheriff.org.

“Even small details may be crit­i­cal in help­ing inves­ti­ga­tors ensure her safe­ty,” the sher­if­f’s office said in their news bul­letin.